Beyond the Domestic Violence Bill 2022

As a society shaped in the crucible of discrimination and violence, we must laud the 2022 amendment to the 27-year-old Domestic Violence Bill—now one of the most progressive and populist pieces of legislation across the Commonwealth Caribbean.  

By recognizing the new manifestations, it expands the definition of domestic violence beyond just physical and provides ground-breaking opportunity for new jurisprudence when it also includes emotional, verbal, psychological, economic, destruction of property, entry into residence without consent and cyber-stalking. The Bill also jettisons the heteronormative prism and recognizes the neutrality of domestic violence and eradicates the inbuilt legal rigidity that believes that only women can be victims of domestic violence.

This is not to say it neglects special protection mechanisms that are sensitive to the fact that women are the ones predominately affected by domestic violence. While legislation in other countries recognize a narrow definition of domestic relationship, our legislation provides a generous definition to include relationships established in custom, religion, dating,   in its quest not to allow perpetrators to go free because of so-called “technicalities.” What is also ground-breaking about the Bill is that it has shifted the responsibility on the state from the abused and provided it with principal responsibility to press charges providing there is adequate evidence. Finally, the Bill recognizes the transformation of technology and its correlation to the development of domestic violence. Through the identification of cyberstalking as a form of violence, the Bill also creates recourse avenues for victims.  

Our families must go through a process of resocialization. Dr Winston Phulgence, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, suggests the historical narrative of violence within our post-colonial societies is premised upon a lack of control on the part of the abuser.  While this seems a common narrative, there is a public education, process of reasoning, explaining and convincing coupled with a justificatory approach which needs to redefine our Saint Lucian home in order to resolve conflict.

More particularly, our young children must unlearn and relearn egalitarianism as it has been contingent on the success of the patriarchy. The view that “men are from Mars and women are  from Venus” seems to accentuate the idea of masculinity and prestige, while denying their female counterpart similar status. Absent from our discussion are the ways in which the patriarchy also deprives men of autonomous lives.  

Our music, dance and culture are by-products of the patriarchy. How naive to believe mass media, pop culture, among other elements do not impact our children. There is need to reduce the policing of manhood in our homes and schools, to jettison the primeval view that young boys are feminine, based on how they behave toward one another. If this attitude persists we will continue to see high levels of violence, evidently synonymous with our notions of masculinity. We must teach from our homes that there is no need to edit the natural behaviour of boys, which includes seeking approval or recognition from their peers. We must cease making it cool to bully and instead encourage   victims to speak out!  

 The police must be appropriately equipped to recognize and to handle the many faces of domestic violence. Police must be taught domestic violence is not “man and woman business,  therefore I’m not getting involved . . .  today they will fight but tomorrow they will be in love again and I won’t be the one to break up their relationship.” The taught “I beat you only because I love you and I want you to be better” attitude has no place in today’s world. What was taught can also be unlearned.  

Our responsibility is to redefine love and care within our societies. on the basis of mutual respect, complementarity, empathy and other superlatives. The citizenry must impress upon government the vital need of an effective police force able, to protect life and property. There must be zero tolerance of violence, in all facets. A domestic violence hotline is useful but only if it’s operational and effectively policed. Our community branches therefore should maximize our smallness which should correlate with our ability to foster organic relationships and play a critical role in being active citizens through the continued process of learning. To paraphrase futurologist Alvin Toffler, in the 21^st century illiteracy also defines an individual one who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

The practice of making predisposed judgements that are followed by questions such as “What is it they did?” must be discontinued. While it is important to determine the root causes of violence, we must be careful not to encourage its justification.  In this new culture, we must also deal with what social scientists refer to as the Hawthorne effect, which biases the collection of data for domestic violence as victims unconsciously change their behavioural patterns because of fear and the expectations of the research. Participants believe   the expectations of the research are to ensure we have the most functional families, free from violence.

Actually, it is to paint a comprehensive picture of our realities.   This level of passivity undergirded by fear inherent in domestic violence victims needs to be removed. Victims must be empowered within our society through the creation of safe spaces. Domestic violence patients, with increased budgetary and technical assistance allocation, should receive the necessary psychosocial and financial assistance needed.

While the amended Domestic Violence Bill and the Criminal Code provide recourse for victims, the cure must be removed from our continued acceptance of the Victorian approach to criminal justice, wherein we prioritize mass incarceration as a panacea for crime. Our statistics indicate the contrary, that increasingly harsher penalties including the death penalty do not reduce crime. Rather, they fill our prisons way beyond capacity and destabilize our society because of the lack of rehabilitative services.

In our new culture of violence, a combination of rehabilitative and punitive measures must work in tandem. Our Domestic Violence Bill must seek to accentuate the judgment given in  Francios v Attorney General of Saint Lucia LC 2001 HC 16 (Suit No. 69 of 2001),wherein the learned judge noted that “there is a duty on the state to protect victims of gender-based violence and this can be interpreted from the human rights provisions in the Constitution. This duty can be found within the Bill of Rights of the Constitution and where a state   fails to take reasonable measures to protect women and girls from gender based-violence, that state is accountable for such failure by virtue of positive obligation under the Constitution, the supreme law.”